RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
When most people talk about how much they enjoy living in German Village, they’re quick to point out the local restaurants and bars, the neighborhood coffee shops and gathering spots, and the easy walkability to all of these great places. But one amenity that typically doesn’t immediately come to mind is Video Central, a 24-hour locally-run video store located at the corner of Livingston Avenue and Fifth Street.
At Video Central you’re not going to find massive quantities of the latest releases like you will at Blockbuster. Instead, they opt for a wide range of diversity in their stock with thousands of titles new and old to choose from. Video Central also offers plenty of niche genres including cult films, anime, and foreign language films. If you’ve got a craving for an old favorite, chances are pretty good that Video Central will have it.
The staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and can quickly help you locate a title logged in their system and point you in the right direction to find it. If you’re not looking for something in particular you can easily spend a few hours browsing their selection and discovering something new to enjoy.
The rental system works a little bit differently than most chain stores in that they charge you to set up a membership account. The cost is currently a one-time setup fee of $2.00 and you’re given a rental card with your customer number. Your card is scanned when you take out a movie, but you don’t have to pay anything until you bring them back. All rentals are due back the following night at midnight (which means you can get almost a two-day rental if you check them out early in the morning) and movies currently cost $2.99 per day for new releases and a mere $1.50 per day for older titles.
So, the next time you’re stuck channel surfing in the middle of the night and wishing you had a good movie to watch, remember that you’ve got a solution: Video Central.
More information can be found online at VideoCentral.MyVideoStore.com.
By far the best video store in Columbus and well worth the drive for those who don’t live close enough to any of their locations. A membership works at the other locations on N. High Street (North Campus Video) and Westerville Road. It appears the Bethel location is no longer listed on their website…did they close?
I’ve never used the GV location, and I hate to trash businesses, especially local ones, but I have never had worse treatment in a retail environment than I have at North Campus–and I’ve heard friends relate similar stories. Unfriendly service, disorganized selection, arbitrary rules and employees who were downright MEAN to my mom when she came in to return a late video for me.
I try to patronize local places–RIP, Clintonville Video–but after several bad experiences with North Campus, I went to the chains (Blockbuster, Hollywood Video), and now pretty much just catch movies when they come out or when the hit HBO/Showtime.
We have netflicks, but still continue to walk up to GV video all the time.
We love that place…great selection and great people behind the counter.
RE: North Campus Video. I’ve been a customer for like 14 or more years. I’ve never once had a problem. I’ve quite possibly spent too much money in the back room, but I’ve never had any problems with staff.
It’s kind of anti-corporate atmosphere might be unusual, but that is what I like about it.
I won’t go into it again in detail, but I’m not a huge fan of this place either.
I’ve never been to the North Campus location, but have been in the GV one plenty of times. Never had any problems with the staff at all. There’s been plenty of times when we’re in a hurry and looking for something specific and they’ve never complained about helping us find what we’re looking for when asking for help.
I live on the northwest side of Columbus, and have been to the bethel rd. location plenty of times. That location doesn’t have as wide a variety of movies as the north campus or the german village location, but it does allow you to rent movies out for longer. New movies and adult films you can keep out for one night, but older movies you can keep for 5 nights.
I’m not complaining, but one thing I find strange about the video centrals is that their adult portions remain open past midnight even though there was law put in place a year or so ago that said that all adult movie stores/novelty shops and strip clubs must close by midnight. I know Video Central isn’t just an adult movie store, but you would think that they would make them close their adult section by midnight as well.
Since the adult videos are probably not a ‘substantial’ part of the business, I think defined by the percentage of items offered in the store, not necessarily revenue, they aren’t considered an adult oriented business. They would be considered more like the Circle K selling a Playboy.
Wasn’t a big fan when I went there either.
I recall renting Waterworld/Postman a couple years back for a post-apocalyptic Kevin Costner movie night from Video Central… only to find it on top the DVD player a week later. $40 late fee, harsh. Can’t blame them, but I will blame Costner.
A friend was charged late fees that were well above the retail value of the movie/games rented. Sure, it’s their policy that is agreed to, but I’ll never rent from them because of it.
Again, I should make it clear that I’m just talking about the North Campus location; I don’t have experience with the others. That said:
I was charged $200 in fees by North Campus for a late video; the same happened to a friend. As you said, that’s their policy, and I agreed to it with my membership, but I found it more than a bit excessive. But still, as I said earlier, my issues had more to do with how they treated me during my membership (which ran roughly 99-04), and particularly how they treated my mom, who was just trying to return my video and pay the fine. After that, I was done.
I don’t have a problem with an anti-corporate atmosphere–heck, my tendency is to love such places–but I believe in spending my money in places where employees treat customers with at least a base level of respect (as should customers to employees).
Used to walk to the GV location about once a week, for a period of a year and a half. Never experienced anything but friendly service and a great selection. “They charged me a late fee because I was late” is just about the dumbest complaint I’ve ever heard.
I’ve never come across anyone being overly rude at the Campus location. Sure, there are a couple guys there that don’t smile to you everytime you walk in the store and act like they would rather be somewhere else, but you can’t expect them to be angels and it isn’t a store wide attitude–and frankly, if you returned an item to me 200 dollars or more in late fees I wouldn’t be very pleased either.
The point of the article is that Video Central is a hidden gem in the city and it is. I don’t even bother with Hollywood video or Blockbuster. Video Central has just about anything you need.
I’ve had a membership since ’94 and I’ve never had a problem with any employees…but I’ve also never been late in returning movies. I’d even put up with a little attitude if it still meant being able to choose from their selection of horror, cult, and documentary movies. The peeps at the GV store are the nicest bunch, and if you can’t find a movie on the shelf, they can look it up in their system.
As I said before, I take responsibility for turning in the video late–I decided to stop going there after I experienced a number of issues with North Campus. I’ve worked retail before, and I know that customers can be real pains in the ass, but the general bad attitude, which went far beyond the lack of a smile, was a real turnoff. And that, when coupled with everything else, prompted me to go elsewhere.
I’m glad to hear that Video Central is a great resource for folks in GV and nearby areas; I wish that I could give the same glowing recommendation to the location in my neck of the woods.
I have always had good experiences at Video Central. I have never been to the N. Campus or GV locations so I really can’t speak to those stores. I go to the Bethel Rd store (Yes, they are still open). If you want to rent an indie and foreign film that’s the place to go. I have to admit that most of my mainstream renting is done at the Kroger $1 kiosk…Can’t beat that.
I love the one in German Village ! I don’t go a lot it’s a bit of a trip from my side of town but if I want something unique that is where I go. For my normal rentals RedBox Owns!
Never had a problem at their GV or North Campus location…my bigger question…People still rent movies? If the date stamp wasn’t there I would have thought this was a post from 8 years ago…
haha, heck yeah! I still rent movies! Video Central has the stuff you definitely can’t find at Blockbuster and alot that even Netflix doesn’t carry. When I was attempting to find a dvd of the 1987 movie “Rawhead Rex” written by Clive Barker thats long been out-of-print…guess who had it? Video Central! Netflix doesn’t even have the dvd as ever existing. I suppose its somewhere on the web to download, but I try to keep it real.